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Foreman Scotty Redux: Going So Far Down Memory Lane We Fall Into the Mystery Mine

Riding down Memory Lane with Foreman Scotty got a big response from Okie-Boomers.

So today the blog will answer several reader questions and reveal five amazing facts relating to the Foreman Scotty Show that you absolutely did not know.

First, the questions:

Little J.B. Taylor writes in to ask: “Anyone remember what Willie’s Mine was called? I just remember he always got into trouble when he went in it.”

Mystery Mine

Well Little J.B., according to Richard on the internets, a source that is almost never wrong, ahem, “The Foreman Scotty Show had six weeks of promos, ads, and episodes dealing with the Mystery Mine, later in the years returned to the mine which was on the ranch. It was always Willie and Cannonball that would wander in the mine for some reason and Foreman Scotty would always go in after them, find them and bring them back. They would always either go forward or backwards in time. Danny Williams would always play the part of the villains.”

Ken, also from the Internets, adds that Foreman Scotty always seemed bewildered by the weird goings-on in the mine. “There’s got to be a logical explanation for this,” he said about 1,000 times, as he paced back and forth, apparently stalling for time so he could think what to say and do next. Ken says Foreman Scotty and Willie never rehearsed and “half ad-libbed” their lines.

Now, I would not want to impugn Ken of the Internets.

But, personally, I find that comment hard to believe because, even though I was only 5 when I was on the Foreman Scotty Show, I already had a highly critical eye. Even then, I recognized acting genius. And I knew that Foreman Scotty’s huge staff of Emmy-award-winning writers were a million times better than Aaron Sorkin would ever be.

(Editor’s note: I got to time travel in the Mystery Mine, so that totally makes sense.)

When riding down Memory Lane on Woody — and the blog will not tolerate wise cracks about that, because it was a simpler time back then — we could not remember details about the “Magic Lasso”.

Thankfully, Little Karen Booker Chism writes that, “The magic lasso selected a child in the audience who won the golden horseshoe. I know because I won it when I was 4… it was superimposed on the screen and moved throughout the crowd, pausing (almost) several times before the winner was ‘lassoed'”.

What Little Karen did not mention, and why this blog is unable to give her a replacement golden horseshoe (and the attached pony), is that children in the audience had to shout “NIX-O-BILLY” to make the Magic Lasso appear.

Sorry! Wrong Magic Lasso!

Anyway, after the audience had screamed “Nix-o-Billy” at the top of their lungs, boys in the audience would act like complete maniacs: hoopin’ and hollerin’ and makin’ faces and totally fallin’ off their horse, trying to get the Magic Lasso to land on them so they would win the Golden Horseshoe.

But the Magic Lasso was rigged. It would ALWAYS land on some cute little girl, like Karen. Not that we still resent this terrible injustice after all these years, but the FBI or somebody should look into that.
Fun Facts

And here are five little-known “facts” about the Foreman Scotty Show that the blog is almost certain you did not know.

1) Willy’s overall-wearing buddy Cannonball was played by Wilson Hurst, not Dean Blevins, as many people believe.

2) Foreman Scotty’s real-life wife was “Mary Apostle”, a kindergarten teacher from Nichols Hills Elementary School (Note: Nichols Hills is where the rich people lived, in case you did not know.)

4) The parents of kids in the studio audience got to watch the show in the “Hay Loft”. (OK, you might have remembered that one, but I did not.)

5) The Magic Mine debuted at the 1964 State Fair, if Mark of the Internets is to be believed, and we have no reason to doubt him. According to Mark’s very long and unedited memory, Willie was up to no good, which we know is hard to believe, but here you go:

“Foreman Scotty was entrusted with the responsibility of producing tokens to be handed out at the upcoming state fair. The original tokens (see above) were supposed to be blank on one side, and imprinted with the “gold mine of good viewing” statement shown on right-side illustration on the web site. In the meantime, Willie discovers gold in an abandoned mine near the ranch.

“Being an old prospector, he sets up a smelting operation. Willie then borrows the coin press from the ranch and decides to add a second side to the design. He creates the Circle-4 logo shown on the left. Now, this is quite a feat for a character who is supposed to be 90 years old and illiterate. Willie bags his gold coins and places them near the door of the ranch bunkhouse. Now, on the other side of the door, Foreman Scotty had placed bags of the tokens that were blank on one side. Foreman Scotty does not know about Willie’s gold.

“It came time to take the tokens to the state fair, and on his way out the door, Foreman Scotty picks up Willie’s real gold coins. Willie wants to claim his riches, so he hops the bus with the remaining bags of coins. When he gets down the road and discovers the coins are worthless, he gets into trouble and has to call Foreman Scotty. Willie confesses to the gold operation and the crew goes into the mine, only to discover a piece of concrete foundation in the ceiling. It turns out the mine wound its way underground to the OPUBCO Building at the Oklahoma State Fair grounds. With this new discovery, WKY-TV and OPUBCO open up the “Mystery Mine” exhibit at the Oklahoma State Fair.”

Don’t that just beat all?

Attention: OKIE Boomers

If you have any Foreman Scotty-related memories or questions, drop them into the Facebook Comments section or directly onto the blog (click on “comments” at the top) and we will address them until the Internets dries up.